Stan Christensen is a partner at Arbor Advisors, an investment banking firm where he negotiates on behalf of mid-market technology companies. He has nearly twenty years of experience in both transactional and operations roles and has worked on hundreds of transactions. Before starting Arbor, he was the General Manager of Eazel, a Linux-based software startup. He started his career in corporate finance on Wall Street, and then worked for ten years with CMG, a negotiation advisory firm affiliated with The Harvard Negotiation Project. In this capacity he worked with corporations and governments-advising, negotiating, and mediating transactions and conflicts. In 1996 he was selected as a Kellogg Fellow for his work in the non-profit and public sectors. He is a member of The Council On Foreign Relations and currently teaches a course on Negotiation at Stanford University in The School of Engineering.
He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Brigham Young University.

Dan Springer, CEO of Responsys, discusses the benefits of working with attorneys in an entrepreneurial environment. In terms of choosing your own counsel, Springer highlights the importance of finding a great attorney with deep expertise and that you trust. In terms of working with other attorneys, Springer provides advice to entrepreneurs working with challenging individuals.

Dan Springer, CEO of Responsys, shares tactics for nurturing and protecting human capital. Springer argues that managers often make the mistake of giving unrewarding but urgent work to their best performers, which is a short term strategy that can lead to burnout and the loss of a company's best human capital. Instead, managers and entrepreneurs should focus on the long term and give their most rewarding tasks to star performers in order to nurture and protect them, because ultimately these team members provide the most value to the company.

Dan Springer, CEO of Responsys, talks about the challenges of dealing with problematic employees. Springer suggests that it is easier to deal with clear under-performers whereas the greater challenge is to address team members who have both positive and damaging qualities. Springer suggests that the best response to these situations is to have a clear and frank conversation with the team member which gives them an opportunity to improve.

Dan Springer, CEO of Responsys, provides counter-intuitive advice to young people by suggesting that when starting your career you should negotiate for the lowest possible title and salary at the organization of your choice. Although Springer provides this advice light-heartedly, he does so to emphasize the importance of setting up a situation in which you can exceed expectations and can rise to the top. In addition, he warns about the dangers of negotiating to hard for higher salary or positions which potentially make organizational members uncomfortable or lead to expectations that are difficult to meet.

Dan Springer, CEO of Responsys, suggests strategies to retain good people. Springer suggests that the most important strategy is to help team members feel excited about their career path, whatever that might be. In addition, Springer has found that smaller rewards throughout the year for excellent work have a large effect in helping employees feel appreciated and want to stay with the company.

Dan Springer, CEO of Responsys, acknowledges that the most frequent and important negotiations often occur with customers. Furthermore, Springer advises that the keys to a successful negotiation with customers include: 1) Preparation to discover what the customer wants and 2) Identifying the few things on which you will stand firm.

Stan Christensen is a partner at <a href="http://arboradvisors.com">Arbor Advisors</a>, an investment banking firm where he negotiates on behalf of mid-market technology companies. In this lecture, Christensen builds a framework and illuminates a few of the classical mistakes in negotiation. He defines negotiation as an attempt to persuade or influence a situation. He emphasizes relationship management and problem solving as being fundamental to negotiation. He also alludes to the conceptual framework by illustrating examples from his vast global experience.

Stan Christensen highlights the fact that negotiations are serial events. He notes that it is important for one to realize this as you would encounter the same people in the future. He illustrates this fact from his experience in Seoul.

Stan Christensen throws light on the art of effective negotiation. He defines it as any attempt to persuade or influence a party to do something. He adds a note of humor by illustrating it with a story of one his students.

Stan Christensen believes that communication is a key element in negotiation. He stresses the fact that communication is about convincing the other side that you can hear them and that they are being heard. He illustrates it with anecdotes and his personal experiences in negotiating deals.

Stan Christensen talks about his experience in negotiating salaries and fills the conversation with interesting personal experiences. He believes that developing a best alternative to a negotiated agreement and having a good idea about the objective criteria is key to effective negotiation of salaries.

Stan Christensen is a partner at <a href="http://arboradvisors.com">Arbor Advisors</a>, an investment banking firm where he negotiates on behalf of mid-market technology companies. In this lecture, Christensen builds a framework and illuminates a few of the classical mistakes in negotiation. He defines negotiation as an attempt to persuade or influence a situation. He emphasizes relationship management and problem solving as being fundamental to negotiation. He also alludes to the conceptual framework by illustrating examples from his vast global experience.

Steve Young, former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, describes the lessons he's learned in negotiating with teammates, agents, and in his personal life. Interviewed as a guest in Stan Christensen's Negotiations course, Young provides insight through humorous anecdotes across a broad range of experience. In particular, he describes different negotiation tactics that were useful throughout his career as a quarterback, lawyer, and entrepreneur. While earning his spot as the fiery leader of the 49ers, balancing life with children, and undergoing multiple business ventures, Young highlights the use of accountability, soft skills to deal with personal feelings, and working hard with no excuses, to achieve success.

Steve Young, former quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, explains how he uses different elements of negotiation throughout his life, whether it is in his marriage or on the field. According to Young, financial returns are not the only incentive in negotiations. He describes one of the negotiation tactics he used with his agent Leigh Steinberg.

Young talks about how he used negotiation skills to earn his place in the San Francisco 49ers. He describes how he never showed any signs of victimization and played his best on the field. Never give an excuse, he says, and always take the blame where it is appropriate.

Young describes how he used accountability to deal with setbacks on the field. Whenever he committed an interception, Young accepted the mistake and looked at ways to fix the problem. He realized that when one was ultimately accountable, others would also take responsibility to improve the situation.

Young explains how he used soft skills as a quarterback to motivate his team. He learned to assess a situation through the perspective of his teammates and to understand their personal incentives. In this manner, he was able to inspire them individually and improve their communication and coordination on the field.

Young talks about how it is important to step back and understand your own weaknesses. This allowed him to improve his ball throwing skills, even though he had a height disadvantage from other quarterbacks. According to Young, a great negotiator is able to understand his strengths and weaknesses through self-analysis.

Young talks about fostering great relationships with his teammates and learning how to overcome the competition by using his negotiation skills. He describes how most of the negotiations he has been involved with have been symbiotic. It is important for people to feel that they are not being taken advantage of because you will lose out in the long haul, he says.

Young explains how he was able to negotiate with former 49ers offensive coordinator Bill Wash to play some of his strategies. He would commend Walsh for his ideas and would add a few suggestions. Walsh noticed Young had good ideas and would eventually come to ask for his opinion.